competence
Pluralcompetences (some meanings)
- 1The ability to do something well enough to be trusted with a job or role.
Like being good enough at a job that people stop worrying about you.
Her quiet competence made everyone trust her with the whole project.
The new manager showed real competence from his very first day.
Similarability, capability, skill, proficiency, expertise
Oppositeincompetence, inability, ineptitude
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- 2The skill needed to do one particular task or job well.
Like one tool in a toolbox: each one does its own job.
Reading a map is a useful competence for any hiker.
The course teaches the basic competences a new nurse needs.
Similarskill, capability, ability, proficiency
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- 3The legal power to deal with a certain matter or case.
Like having the right key: only the right office can open a certain case.
The court had no competence to rule on a foreign tax case.
Deciding road safety falls within the city council's competence.
Similarjurisdiction, authority, remit, purview, power
Note
- 4The deep knowledge of a language that native speakers have, not how they actually use it in speech.
Like knowing the rules of a game even when you sometimes make mistakes playing it.
A child develops competence in their first language without any formal lessons.
Linguists study the competence behind every native speaker's sense of what sounds right.
Oppositeperformance
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- 5How well a rock resists being bent, squeezed, or made to flow.
Like how a dry stick snaps but warm clay just bends.
Sandstone often has greater competence than the soft shale around it.
Geologists measured the competence of each layer in the cliff.
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Less common meaning
- 6Enough steady money to live on comfortably without working.
Like having enough money put aside that you never have to worry about work again.
He inherited a small competence and never had to work again.
Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense, / Lie in three words — health, peace, and competence.
1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man.Here, competence means enough steady income to live on comfortably.Similarincome, sufficiency
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Practice
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Origin
It came from Middle French compétence, which came from Late Latin competentia.